Overture to Entropy
by ish.the.abstract
Summary: It was simply a dare but dares are stupid and they can lead to unexpected kisses, memories and all things in between. Then the prettiest girl is suddenly talking to the laziest genius; it could be trouble brewing or possibly...love?


_**Overture to Entropy**_

**AN:** this is a collab fic with Conspicuous Pink

**Disclaimer:** All I own is a Gaara plushie and a Sharingan phonestrap…I dunno about her but we do not own Naruto. - ish

This is dedicated to kawaiike.favz for joining me in my bitching..i love you favz-chan - ish

If it's in _Italics,_ it could be a flashback or for emphasis.

**Chapter 1**

* * *

"_Shika-kun" came the hiss through Shikamaru's walky-talky, "do you copy?"_

"_Ino," Shikamaru said calmly into the mouth piece as a hand slapped to his forehead in frustration at his friend's antics,"Stick to the plan and don't move about. We can't have anyone messing this up." _

"_Why are we doing this again," Chouji grumbled through a mouthful of potato chips. Shikamaru could picture his free hand buried inside the packet possessively._

"_Because we want to get back at the others for the prank they played on us last week," Ino informed him matter-of-factly voice. Shikamaru could almost _hear_ her rolling her eyes from her station behind the swings in the park._

_A few moments of silence followed then Chouji not-so-subtly shattered it with the sound of his munching-working away at crunching the chips in his mouth._

_Shikamaru sighed. "Chouji, stop that. And don't even think about starting on the cookies, we _need _those for our master plan." _

_Chouji swallowed his chips, "Aye, aye captain!"_

"_We're going in," Ino said, doing a very poor job of imitating a spy's voice. Shikamaru smiled at her tone of enthusiasm and was about to nod although he decided that the action would be pointless since neither of them could see._

_All three six year-olds charged out of their respective hiding places, each one running towards a different house._

"_Chouji, remember to replace your ant cookies with the real ones in Naruto's home. And don't let him see you," Ino ordered her companion through the mouth piece, she hissed under her breath as her hair was freed from the restrictions of its ponytail, shoulder-length tresses flying behind her—_

**BRIIIING**

Shikamaru rolled over in his sleep as he elicited a low snore, the back of his head still rested on the soft surface of the pillow.

**BRIIIING**

His murky brown eyes were met by the bright sunlight filtering through his bedroom window as he opened them a fraction. He squinted against the brightness and shielded his eyes and tried closing them again.

**BRIIIING**

Shikamaru bolted upright, eyes wide, as he caught a glimpse of the time on his ever-persistent alarm clock. He slammed his hand hard on it, successfully shutting the annoying alarm off. The seventeen year-old shot out of bed and scrambled around his messy room, fumbling in drawers for his shirt as he hastily got dressed in what he supposed was a relatively clean outfit.

"Shit, shit, shit," Shikamaru swore under his breath as he knelt on the cluttered floor of his room and peered under the bed for any sight of his new trainers. He found none and settled for an older, more worn out pair. He slipped on the footwear (which, a couple of years ago, was of a pristine, white color) cursing his tardiness repeatedly as he pulled his hair back with a spare elastic band. After he was somewhat dressed, with his shirt on backwards and his belt unbuckled, he shot out of his room and into the bathroom. He slammed the toilet seat in his haste to avoid missing first period; he already decided that he really didn't need another evening of detention.

"SHIKAMARU!!" His mother hollered from downstairs in the kitchen, as she brandished a rolling-pin menacingly in the direction of the stairs.

"WHAT NOW?" Shikamaru turned his head and yelled back, his eyebrow twitching in annoyance.

"GET YOUR LAZY ASS DOWN HERE," Mrs. Nara replied with an ominous tone; Shikamaru sweat dropped and labeled his mother as 'troublesome' under his breath.

"Mmmgh," Shikamaru mumbled as he doubted that his mother could actually hear him as he flicked off the bathroom lights and slammed the door behind him.

"I've got to go mum." He informed her, eyes still sleepy but his pace quick.

His mother looked at him strictly. "Not like _that _you can't." She pointed an accusing finger to his shirt and belt, Shikamaru groaned and pulled his shirt off.

"Fine." He mumbled under his breath as he shoved the garb back over his head, this time the right way round, and buckled his belt.

"Bye mum!" He yelled without looking back at his mother as the brown-haired teenager ran outside, rucksack slung lazily over his shoulders.

Mrs. Nara sighed and slapped a hand to her forehead in frustration as she heard her husband call for more maple syrup.

"I'm coming!"

* * *

Shikamaru made a beeline for the seat by the window the minute he entered the crowded classroom. He slumped down in the chair with a sigh of relief.

God had actually been kind to him for once.

"Shikamaru!" Said adolescent looked up to be greeted by the sight of Tenten, a classmate of his who he branded as 'not so bad.'

"Hey, Tenten," Shikamaru said as he opened his rucksack and brought out the items needed for the lesson. He didn't look up when he heard Tenten sit down on the seat behind him.

"Alright class," came their Math Teacher's voice as he silenced the class, "Settle down, good. Now bring out the homework I assigned to you over the weekend," Kakashi eyed the class suspiciously, "Which I trust you have all completed." The students groaned as they were reminded of the long list of algebra equations most of them failed to answer; with or without the helpful use of a calculator.

"First question!" Kakashi announced just as the door burst open. A girl wearing the latest fashion trends with golden hair twisted into an elaborate braid which extended up to her hips appeared in the doorway, a smirk split across her flawless face.

A few people groaned as they caught sight of Yamanaka Ino, most smiled in glee as she announced her presence.

"Sorry I'm late, Hatake-sensei," Ino flashed the scowling teacher a bright and toothy smile, "but there was just sooo much traffic," the blonde drawled with a hand pressed to her beating heart almost tragically, Kakashi continued to look at his student suspiciously.

"Since there was so much traffic, why was every other member of this class here on time whilst you were not," the silver-haired teacher asked her as he stretched out his hand in a dramatic flair towards the rest of the class for effect.

For the tiniest of moments, if not a split second, Ino and Shikamaru's eyes met, murky brown met icy blue before they both turned away, not sparing another glance to one another.

Ino turned her head to look back at Kakashi, "Gomen, Hatake-sensei..." She apologized with a small bow of her head as a sudden feeling of guilt engulfed her.

The silver-haired man let out a sigh and pointed a finger towards the only vacant seat left: the seat beside Shikamaru.

"Now, if it doesn't bother you Ms. Yamanaka, please sit down and allow me to continue with my lesson," he told her as he turned around to face the board again.

Ino did whatever she could to keep her cerulean eyes from meeting the grey ones of her teacher as she nodded.

Resigned to her fate, the blonde turned and began walking towards the vacant desk with an air of pride and elegance that no other girl her age could possibly muster.

When she made it to the seat, all eyes were upon her, except for the murky ones that belonged to her childhood friend. Her clothed rear met the cold, wooden surface of the chair's seat as she sat down as the connection issued without a sound.

"OK then, as I was saying..."Kakashi continued but Shikamaru's attention wasn't on his teacher or the lesson; it was absentmindedly averted towards his childhood friend.

He stared Ino, his head cocked to one side as he observed the adolescent in a way that was not too obvious. He watched her as she sighed and propped her chin on one hand and took the lesson in with half-lidded eyes. Shikamaru gazed at her with something akin to nostalgia as he remembered the times when they would always stick together, through thick and thin, and the times when Shikamaru could see the few inches of puppy fat around Ino's waistline and on her cheeks. The brunette sighed and tried to imagine that he could still catch some of it stubbornly lingering upon her porcelain face...

"...Shikamaru."

He thought he could see it, Ino as a six year-old, with her pale-yellow hair kept back tightly with the help of her trusty arsenal of hair-pins. He could almost picture the way she would push up the sleeves of the overalls furiously as they kept falling, it would have been her half-baked attempt at keeping them there...

"...Shikamaru."

He could _definitely _see it, he could see her._ And in those days_, he remembered with a smirk on his face, _she would always look at us like that, always with a stubborn glare that was almost defiant_. The furious glint in those blue orbs never disappeared even when they were-

"Shikamaru!"

Said teenager snapped back to reality noticed how intensely he had been staring at Ino, who now had an elegant eyebrow raised in amusement at his behavior.

"If you wish to ogle Ms. Yamanaka," people snickered at the sight of Shikamaru's slightly reddened cheeks at Kakashi's reprimand, "then feel free to do so." Kakashi paused for a moment to let his comment sink in then added not so gently, "but not during class."

At that last statement, as if on cue, the entire class burst into full-blown laughter; they clutched their sides and banged their fists gently on the desks at the prodigy's apparent humiliation and the tiny scarlet blush that stubbornly appeared on Ino's cheeks.

* * *

"Shikamaru."

The brooding teenager looked up to see Akimichi Chouji, a childhood friend who had not been separated from him as yet, Shikamaru nodded in acknowledgement and Chouji took a seat beside him at the cafeteria table.

"Oi, Shikamaru, what's eating you?" Inuzuka Kiba, an acquaintance, waved a hand in front of Shikamaru's face who scowled at the tanned limb that tried to catch his attention.

Kiba pulled out a chair with one swift movement of his hand and plopped himself down on it as a toothy grin split across his feral face."But seriously," he drawled as he leaned closer to a still-scowling Shikamaru, "what the hell was that in Math class?"

"Is it really anything out of the ordinary that I wasn't paying attention, Kiba?" Shikamaru raised an eyebrow lazily.

"That's not the point," Chouji informed him through a mouthful of his favorite potato chips.

"Then what is," Shikamaru questioned his fellow eleventh grader with his chin propped on his right hand as he regarded Shikamaru with a smirk on his lips.

"You were checking Ino out," Chouji proclaimed with a grin on his chubby face, Shikamaru turned towards him.

"What?" Shikamaru's words cut through the air viciously as he narrowed his eyes in Chouji's direction as he glared daggers.

"Don't you dare deny it," Kiba waggled a finger mockingly at the frowning genius.

"Tch, I was reminiscing, now leave me alone," Shikamaru waved off as he neglected the food on the table and prodded the half-eaten sandwich moodily, shoulders hunched and expression dark.

"The first stage is always denial," Kiba informed Shikamaru in a sing-song voice just as the bell for next period rang, Kiba and Chouji got up and bid the temperamental brunette a final goodbye before they scrammed.

Shikamaru sighed; it was going to be a long week.

* * *

**Pinky**: Yay for ShikaIno! Remember people, this is a collaboration, I HELPED WRITE IT!! No dissing the co-writer(s).You guys are gonna review, right? Right? 'Cause we queens of Fiction deserve many of those beautiful things...You can all go view my profile after this. Conspicuous Pink.

**Ish:** she did the bulk of the work actually and I did the editing…ignore the queens of fiction comment though…forgive me for grammatical errors that I may have not seen...and please review (come on people, I've got more than enough alerts and faves to gain an ample amount)...pretty please?


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